


Reunion

by goldarrow



Series: Timeline!verse [6]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-27 01:54:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20399746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldarrow/pseuds/goldarrow
Summary: Stephen and Ryan are caught through an anomaly - with Helen.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures, not me. I will return them when I’m done, slightly mussed but in superb spirits.
> 
> Ditzy and Lyle belong to fredbassett, who kindly lends them out.

Oh, crap. It was definitely being one of those days. 

First thing this morning, I’d fallen out of bed during a nightmare and almost blacked my lover’s eye when he tried to catch me. Luckily Ryan has pretty much the world’s fastest reflexes, not to mention a slightly twisted sense of humour that could manage to find something funny in almost being belted by someone who’s still asleep.

Then we’d been called in to an anomaly alert even before we could eat breakfast after our morning run, so I was starving by the time we arrived at the Home Office. Bloody Connor snaffled the last pastry right as I walked in, and he just grinned at an expression that should by all rights have vaporised him.

And now, here I was, sprawled on the ground on the wrong side of an anomaly - again - staring straight into the eyes of Helen Cutter. Her stance was familiar, and her expression - a supercilious smirk - was even more familiar. I picked myself up, slapped the dust from my trousers and sighed, doing my best to hide the fact that I was frozen solid with terror inside.

“Where’s your shadow?” she asked, looking as if she was holding back her laughter by force of will.

“Who might that be?” I groused in return, staring up over my shoulder at the anomaly nestled against the cliff five feet above me. My skin was crawling at having her out of my line of sight, but I had to know whether I had an escape route. But I was out of luck: there was no way up, not without turning my back completely to her and scrambling on all fours. 

That’s what I get for turning an ankle clambering down the side of a hill and then finishing up by taking a not-so-graceful header through an anomaly. Ryan was going to go spare.

She didn’t have time to answer, as my ‘shadow’ also fell through the circling shards but somehow managed to turn his fall into a roll, ending up on one knee with his rifle aimed straight at her heart.

“Okay?” Ryan asked quietly, to my surprise. Then again, maybe not so surprising. No way would my captain let Helen see anything she could use against us.

“Annoyed, but in one piece,” I replied. “She hasn’t tried anything.”

“What would I be trying?” Helen cocked her head to the side with an innocent look on her face.

“You tell me,” Ryan said. “Any time you show up, trouble is right on your tail.”

Her innocent look deepened. If she'd been my child, I'd've started searching for the broken crockery. I backed up so I was a little behind Ryan, and I know she saw it from the way her eyebrow twitched, but I didn't give a damn. My skin was crawling just from her proximity. I knew it was stupid; this wasn't the Helen who had tortured me and staked me out for dead, but she still wore the same face and I could barely force myself to look at it. 

Ryan moved closer to me, a solid presence for me to hang onto. I took a deep breath and made myself look Helen in the eye. “And, again we ask, what do you want?”

“What do you think I could possibly want from you?” she asked, eyebrows making a break for her fringe. “I didn't have the faintest idea you were going to, um, drop in.”

At that point, I was beginning to wonder if it was possible to crack a tooth just from tightening my jaw so hard. I found out that it was possible to develop a headache, because that's what was happening. I relaxed just a little when I heard Ryan's barely stifled growl beside me. At least I wasn’t the only one who was having trouble dealing with Helen’s brand of conversation.

“And, in any case, you're the ones who need my help,” she added with a smirk.

Ryan's stifled growl broke free. “Why the fuck would we want anything from you?”

Helen's smirk widened into a full-fledged grin. “Because you have no supplies and the anomaly just closed.”

Ryan spun around with a vicious curse, and I started shaking again. Trapped on the wrong side of an anomaly with Helen Cutter. Oh, God, it was too much. Taking a deep breath, I sought out Ryan's gaze. I know exactly what he saw when our eyes met, because his gaze softened just enough for me to see without clueing Helen in on just how badly I was reacting to this.

He turned to give Helen a hard look. “Right. We'll go with you, but be aware that we'll be watching you like hawks. We don't trust you. At all.”

Helen's innocent look melted into one of hurt. “I just want to help. That's all I've ever wanted.”

It was all I could do not to grab Ryan's weapon and smack that manipulative expression off her face. “Pull the other one, Helen, that one's got bells on.” Steeling myself, I stepped closer to her, feeling the short hairs at the nape of my neck standing up at her proximity. “We know, and you know, that you don't ever do anything that doesn't benefit you, first and foremost.” 

When her eyes narrowed and she started to pull back, Ryan chimed in quickly to distract her. “You want something from us, and we seem to need your help for the moment, so, with that acknowledged, lead on. We'll follow.”

Helen went still for a moment, and I could see the thoughts swirling through her mind. She had to be a little off-balance, since at most times she wouldn't allow anyone to perceive even that much. Then she tilted her head to the side in agreement. “Fine. Follow me.”

We hiked for close to an hour. Helen set a punishing pace without looking back, possibly with the hope of putting at least me at a disadvantage by her level of fitness. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t know that I'd been working out with Ryan and was slowly but surely closing in on the Special Forces conditioning. Physically, I had no trouble at all keeping up; emotionally, I had nothing but trouble. Normally Ryan would bring up the rear in a situation like this, but I couldn't bear to stay near Helen so he moved in between as a buffer and I trailed along behind. 

When we arrived at Helen's camp all of us were breathing deeply from the final pull up the hill, with Helen, of course, taking full advantage of the necessity. When Ryan simply glanced at her cleavage and chuckled, she turned to face me. I rewarded her efforts with a disgusted look, and her lips quirked and she allowed her breathing to slow. I thought I heard her mutter something about ‘pathetic’ and ‘useless’ but I didn’t bother asking for clarification.

Ryan moved to stand with his back to the hillside, surveying the panorama in front of us while Helen ducked into the cave to do who knows what. Since she hadn't invited us to join her, I stepped up beside Ryan and looked around, beginning to feel slightly unsettled. There was something odd about this place; it was weirdly familiar, and yet not, at the same time. I started to get the creeps. 

Keeping my voice low, I said, “Ryan, there's something weird here.”

He nodded. “Familiar, right?”

“Yeah, but not completely.” I turned around to look straight at the mouth of the cave and lost my breath, feeling as if I'd been punched in the gut. It was the same cave; it had to be. The position, the shape, the type of rock. I think I staggered a bit, because Ryan was there in a second, his arm around me to hold me upright.

“What?” he asked quietly.

“It's Helen's cave,” I whispered back. “The crazy one.” I turned to him, knowing my distress was showing clearly on my face. “I can't go in there, Ryan.” I was shaking so hard I thought I might vibrate my teeth loose.

“It's okay,” he replied firmly. “You're not alone this time. I'm here and I'm on watch. She can't do a thing.”

I leaned in close and closed my eyes. Crap. Crap. Crap. Sometimes I wondered if Helen would ever stop fucking with my life. Ryan wrapped his arms around me and held on until I was able to claw back at least a bit of self control. I took a few deep breaths, feeling my heartbeat slowing a little more after each exhalation. Finally, I met his eyes and nodded. “Okay. Sorry. PTSD raises its ugly head.”

He smiled and rested his palm on my chest for a moment before he turned us toward the cave. We came face to face with Helen, who was looking very curious. Knowing I couldn't let her get any traction or she’d drive me mad with questions, I simply glared at her and snapped, “Back off, get out of my space.”

Her eyebrows shot up behind her fringe and she automatically took a step back before she caught herself and started to smile. “What's wrong, Stephen? Is there a problem?” 

There was a greedy look on her face that chilled me, and I muttered a filthy phrase that I hoped she caught. Knowing her quick ears, she most likely did. “The problem is you thinking we still have anything to talk about, Helen. We're here because the anomaly closed on us, nothing more. And I for one really don't want to rehash ancient history. So, can we just leave it at that?”

Taking a deep breath, I turned to the entrance and strode through into the cave without hesitation. Nothing like a predatory female to put bad memories in their place, I reckoned. I glanced around; at least the interior was arranged differently, even if the shape of the room was the same. I averted my eyes hastily from the pile of rocks in the far left corner, and concentrated on Ryan's hand on my shoulder and the fire burning brightly against the back wall, its smoke lazily drifting upward into a natural flue in the rock. I looked closer, and saw that the flue was embedded with hooks that looked like ones I’d once seen used for smoking meat. Interesting idea. The sun was going down and the temperature was dropping rapidly. We headed toward the fire with such determination it might as well have been a magnetic field and us Connor’s front door key.

Once we were settled on cushions, basking in the warmth, Helen rummaged in a crate and pulled out three pre-cooked meal packs. “They’re not the tastiest,” she said, with her usual undercurrent of sarcasm, “but they’ll keep us going for tonight.”

“How long until the anomaly opens again?” Ryan asked as he took two packs from her and passed one to me.

Helen shrugged. “A while.”

Ryan set his meal pack onto the floor and stood up. Stalking toward her, he growled, “Stop your fucking games. Either you know or you don’t.” He stopped just outside her reach, and continued, “Tell me now, or it’ll be the last game you play.”

“Are you threatening me?” Helen asked curiously, lounging on her cushion like an empress facing an underling.

Grinning, Ryan squatted down to her level and replied, “Yes, I am. I’ll knock you out and truss you up like a turkey. Then we’ll haul you to the anomaly, sit and wait as long as it takes for it to open again, and then we’ll carry you through and drop you at Lester’s feet.”

Helen gaped at him, eyes wide, then threw her head back and laughed with total abandon. “I quite like you, Captain,” she said merrily. “You’re the first man I’ve met in years who doesn’t mince words. So, okay, the anomaly will open in three days, at about ten a.m. by your watch.”

Returning to sit beside me, Ryan picked up his meal and started eating. Reminded of my hunger, I tucked in as well, keeping a weather eye on Helen. She might like Ryan, but that didn’t mean we could trust her.

“When are we?” I asked, and almost regretted opening my mouth when she turned her full attention my way. Luckily, she was still quite pleased with Ryan’s reaction to her game, so she answered without hesitation.

“Early Cenozoic. I’m surprised you weren’t able to work it out, Stephen,” she said.

Okay, so much for pleasantries. She always had excelled at the little digs. I was annoyed at first, then realised that all I needed to do to annoy her back was to ignore the spitefulness. So I shrugged and asked, “How early? Palaeocene? Eocene?”

“Palaeocene,” she replied. “Getting very close to Eocene by my reckoning. There’re more grasses than I’d expect from true Palaeocene, but the animals haven’t caught up yet.”

Turning to Ryan, I told him, “Okay, Palaeocene at the edge of Eocene means after the K-T extinction at the end of the Cretaceous, so we’re not looking at any really big dinosaurs. This is when mammals truly started taking over, but this early even the predators are pretty small. Nothing like smilodons, for example; they’re late Cenozoic.”

“Thank fuck for that,” Ryan replied with feeling, and I grinned.

“Yeah. We’re probably as safe as we can be this far in the past, as long as we don’t go swimming without a lookout. There are a number of crocodilians scuttling around.” I forced myself to look at Helen again. “Are you living off the land at all, or subsisting on things you bring through?”

I could see her working out whether to answer straight or play a game, but after a side-glance at Ryan’s implacable expression, she took the better part of valour. “I live off the land as much as I can.” She waved at the boxes arranged along the walls. “I keep in enough supplies to last for a month, just in case, but I prefer not to use them.”

Ryan looked around. “Food, canned and packaged. Salt. Medical supplies. Water purifiers. Looks like you have most of what you need. I’m assuming this is a regular stopping point for you?”

Helen smiled and dodged the question. “I have a lot of these camps set up, Captain. It’s safer that way.” She yawned and stretched. “I notice you didn’t mention the sleeping bag,” she said provocatively. “There’s only one, I’m afraid. But it is big enough for three, if we get really cosy.”

I shuddered and made a face. “No thanks,” I told her. “I’d rather share with a Silurian scorpion.”

Ryan grinned at her expression and pushed his and my cushions together. “We’ll be fine,” he said cheerfully. “Sleep well, Helen.”

xXx

I’ve never been much on sleeping rough. Ask Cutter about that; he’s had to put up with my grumbling on digs for years. I don’t mind sleeping out, but I do like a camp bed or at least a sleeping bag. So, needless to say, I had a rotten night, snuggling with Ryan notwithstanding. Having Helen so close to me kept me on edge; every time I fell asleep, the slightest sound or movement from her side of the fire made me wake up with a start. After a few hours of that, Ryan got tired of my wriggling and switched sides with me, putting himself between me and my nightmare so I was able to rest my head on his shoulder and finally relax enough to doze off. Unfortunately, it felt like no more than 15 minutes had passed before the light from the cave opening hit my eyelids and woke me again. 

I groaned and squinted against it, and Ryan chuckled, obviously wide awake.

“Up and at ‘em, sleepyhead,” he said, and I snarled and glared at him. 

Helen’s quiet laugh from the other side of the fire made me turn the same look on her. Unfortunately, she too failed to combust. She did sit up and stretch ostentatiously, ignoring the buttons that popped open as she lifted her arms up and back, pushing her chest out past the attachment ability of the fastenings. I wondered, not for the first time, exactly when sexual provocation had become her default setting. She’d always used her sex as a means of control, but I didn’t remember her being this carnally challenging even during my experiences with her as her student. 

She must have sensed my confusion because she smiled at me, the same secretive smile she used to give when we were lovers. I unconsciously clamped my hand hard on Ryan’s. He took one quick glance between the two of us, and burst into laughter. 

“Right, what’s on the agenda for today?” he asked cheerfully, and Helen blinked in surprise. 

It looked as if she was having trouble understanding his total indifference to the history between us, especially after how Cutter had reacted, but she pulled herself together fairly quickly and shrugged. “I’m getting a little low on meat,” she said. “How would you boys like to go on a hunt?”

Ryan looked at me, and when I shrugged in return, he agreed. “One thing, though,” he stated firmly. “You stay in front of us at all times.”

Helen was starting to look annoyed with him, her earlier pleased reaction wiped out by his continuing mistrust. Lips thin, she stared at us instead of throwing something, which I’d half expected her to do since there were some decent-sized rocks close by her hand. “Fine,” she grumbled. “Just don’t shoot me in the back by mistake.”

Ryan laughed. “If I shoot you in the back, Helen, believe me it won’t be by mistake.”

Helen’s eyebrows made a break for her fringe and her mood lightened immediately. “Oh, if you shoot me, Captain, it will be a mistake, I can guarantee that.”

“Riiight,” Ryan drawled. “I’ll remember.” He stood up and held his hand out to pull me to my feet. 

When neither one of us made a move to assist her, Helen smirked and stood on her own. “Shall we go, gentlemen?” She grabbed a small pack and swung it onto her back, then sauntered out of the cave, thumbs tucked into the straps.

I rested my head on Ryan’s shoulder for a moment, sighed, and started after her. Ryan’s hand wrapped around mine was the only thing keeping me grounded. I hated this, every minute and every second. I wanted out so badly I could barely stand it. So I throttled the feelings down, stuffed them into a box in my stomach where they sat like a lump of lead, and kept going.

Helen wandered around, seemingly randomly, until after about an hour I realised she was running an odd pattern along the tree-covered hills. She wasn’t following any of the trails we came upon; she would parallel one for a while, then suddenly change direction, then backtrack, then parallel another for a while, then duplicate the switching manoeuvre. For someone who telegraphed superiority as a matter of course, she was being surprisingly circumspect. 

Ryan glanced at me, and when I nodded, he asked her the question. “What are we hunting for?”

Helen huffed with open annoyance. “Stephen told you. The dominant creatures of this time are primitive large mammals; members of the groups uintatheriidae, mesonychia, and pantodonta.”

“For fuck’s sake, Helen,” I growled. “We’re not your fucking students.”

She smirked and relented. “If it looks a bit like a wolf, it’s a predator; edible, but the meat is very gamey. If it’s about the size of a cat, it’s tasty but it won’t have much meat and it’s very quick and hard to catch. Our best bet is to look for a Barylambda. It’s about the size of a small tapir, fairly appetising, and we can easily get enough meat from one to last for three or four days.” Stroking the collar of her jumpsuit, she added, “Especially if the good captain will oblige with the use of his big gun.”

I almost burst out laughing when Ryan responded, “Certainly, just this once; but I assure you that my ‘big gun’ is very particular about when and for whom it’s used.” 

Seeing Helen caught wrong-footed in a contest of sexual innuendo made my day a lot brighter. She gaped at him for a moment, then turned and walked away without another word. We spent the next hour in silence, following Helen as she continued her meandering. I was about to break down and ask whether she was actually expecting to find something or if she was just having us on, when we broke from the woods and looked out over a huge lake bound by low hills covered with low ferns and some clumps of primitive coarse grasses. There was a herd of creatures there, some grazing by the edge of the water, some dipping their muzzles in to drink.

Helen dropped to a crouch, and we followed suit. “Barylambda,” she said, pointing to the creatures, which looked like they hadn’t yet decided what kind of animals they wanted to be when they evolved. 

I examined the closest one. It was about the size of a small Shetland pony, and it had a head like a weasel, a tail like an otter, and a body like an anorexic rhino with flat feet. All in all, a very odd creature indeed. 

Ryan unhooked his rifle. “Which one?” he asked her softly.

“The young one, over on the right,” she replied, pointing to an adolescent currently grazing closer and closer to us around the edge of the herd.

Ryan sighted on the youngster, which was about half the size of the big one in front of us. At least Helen wasn’t into waste. Or maybe the younger ones just tasted better. With her, there was no telling her motivations sometimes. One smooth compression of Ryan’s finger on the trigger, and the youngster folded down to the ground before the echo of the shot brought the heads of the rest of the herd to alert. The creatures looked around and started to relax when they saw nothing, but then one scented the air and caught the smell of blood. Within a minute, the entire herd had moved away, making strange bleating noises and leaving the body of the young Barylambda lying on the ground in front of us.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They make it home - but things are getting timey-wimey

Helen moved in on the dead Barylambda without hesitation, pulling a rather large, extremely sharp-looking knife from her pack. She quickly and efficiently gutted the creature, burying the entrails to discourage scavengers. Deferring to her greater knowledge on which cuts of meat were the best, Ryan and I allowed her to complete the butchering while we kept watch for any predators that might start showing interest in the blood scent.

When she finished dressing the creature, Helen moved to the lake and washed her hands in the water. “Now that I’ve finished the messy bit, would either of you be willing to carry some of this weight?” she asked sardonically. “I’m surprised you were so reluctant to get your hands bloody.”

“Split it into three,” I replied, ignoring her jab. 

Ryan agreed. “We can each carry some.” He strode over to the carcass and packed some of the meat into two pieces of the hide and folded each one closed. Throwing the larger one over his shoulder, he passed the smaller one over to me. 

Helen’s eyes narrowed a bit, which worried me. I wasn’t sure what she’d gathered from his actions, but it didn’t seem to be good. However, she didn’t comment right then, simply packing up the last of the meat and walking away, taking what looked to be a slightly more direct line back to her cave.

No matter what I did to avoid her, I kept turning my head to find Helen right beside me, watching me curiously. I knew it was a mistake, but I finally broke. “What?” I asked, with a little too much irritation.

“I would have thought that you’d take the heavier one, since your lover has to carry all those big guns,” she said mockingly.

I glared at her. “What possible point could you be making with that comment?”

She shrugged. “Just making an observation.”

“Uh-huh,” I grunted, and switched over to Ryan’s other side again. 

He grinned at me, and I grumbled back, then looked behind me. No Helen. I felt my shoulders tighten as I looked to my side, and there she was, smiling. 

“So, why is Ryan carrying the heavy pack? You’re in good enough shape to carry the heavy one.”

She spent the entire trip back to her camp pushing at me until I was ready to either kill her or run. Her constant questioning, her sharp eyes and even sharper tongue finally made Ryan go into what I always referred to as Protect-Stephen mode as we made our way into the cave. He grabbed her shoulder and yanked her away from me. With the same snarl in his voice that he’d used on her before, he told her, “Shut the fuck up, Helen. His reasons have nothing to do with you.”

This time, Helen fought back. “Maybe, maybe not, Captain. That is not for you to judge.”

"Oh, sod it.” I turned to Ryan and shook my head. “Forget it, love. Helen has a lot of annoying qualities, and ‘persistent’ is at the top of the list.” He let her go, and I caught her by surprise and shoved her onto her cushion. “Another Helen, older than you, opened an anomaly in the cage room that day and pulled me through, but not before I was injured by the creatures. Badly. My arm is still a little weak.”

She lay on the cushion, not even trying to move as she stared at me in wide-eyed surprise. “I thought the ARC soldiers -“

Well, hallelujah. I’d actually managed to catch Helen wrong-footed. “No. You. Well, sort of you.” I grinned viciously at her. “She hadn’t aged very well, that one.”

“What do you mean - that one?” 

Okay, that question worried me. If this Helen was asking, then that meant she didn’t know about alternate timelines. If she didn’t know about alternate timelines, then she wasn’t the Helen I’d thought she was, and oh, crap, I was starting to confuse myself. If this wasn’t the Helen from my original timeline, then was she a Helen from another timeline entirely who’d been timeline-switching without even realising it? I glanced at Ryan, and he was looking as pole-axed as I felt. 

Ryan jumped in. “You know, Helen, just shut up. Prepare the meat for smoking and shut up.”

Eyes on Ryan, Helen smiled slowly, her expression more predatory than I’d ever seen it. But she didn’t say anything, just moved over to the packs, pulled out chunks of meat and spread them on the hearth. Drawing her skinning knife, she started to slice the meat thin. Once she had enough strips to fill the hooks in the flue, she gestured for Ryan to hang them while she packed the rest into a tub filled with earth and latched the lid. “Let this age overnight. It’ll taste better in the morning.”

As Ryan hung the last strip, she turned to me and stroked my arm. “I’m glad I was able to save you, Stephen, even if it was by proxy.”

My skin crawled at her touch and I moved away with a shudder. “Helen, back off.”

Ryan wiped his hands clean and pulled her away again, over her protests. “Helen, we’ve already killed one of you. I’ll have no compunctions about killing another one. So start the fire smoking, sit down and fucking knock it off.”

Ignoring the expression of complete shock on her face, he pulled out meal packs and handed them around, then walked over to our cushions and sat down. I wasted no time in joining him.

We didn’t speak again that night. Helen was wearing an introspective expression that I didn’t trust one iota, and Ryan was so pissed off that I didn’t want to disturb him. Not that I thought he’d hurt me, but just being close to that level of quiet fury was making my hair stand on end. All in all, our second night was even more uncomfortable than the first one.

The next morning, I woke up alone on the cushions, smelling something odd. Holding myself still, I slitted my eyes open and peered around, relaxing when I saw Helen still asleep on the other side of the fire and Ryan squatting in front of it, turning some steaks on flat rocks nested in the flames. I sat up and watched him, admiring the fluid movement of the flat hard muscles of his back under the material of his shirt. When Helen stirred, I got up and went over to sit beside Ryan. He turned his head and gave me a reassuring smile as he speared the steaks and placed them on plates to cool off a little.

“Not much seasoning,” he said quietly, “but they should be okay. Maybe a little more cooked than we’re used to, but I was concerned about bacteria we have no immunity to.”

“That’s fine,” I replied, eyeing the steaks dubiously. “I’m not sure I’m all that hungry, anyway.”

A chuckle from Helen’s direction made my shoulder blades itch. “It really is safe, Stephen,” she said superciliously. “When did you become so tentative? You used to have enough courage to take a few risks, at least occasionally.”

Ryan’s lips tightened. I touched his arm and shook my head. “It’s alright,” I said, loud enough for Helen to hear, but soft enough for her to believe that I was trying to hide the words. “She does that. She’s just looking for a rise. Makes her feel powerful.”

Ryan’s eyes widened, then crinkled in amusement as we heard Helen swear under her breath. I made a face. It had been momentarily satisfying, but maybe that hadn’t been such a good idea. We still had to put up with her for another day.

Taking a plate over to Helen, Ryan dropped it onto the ground beside her. “You can do whatever you want with the rest of the meat. Stephen and I are going out. Don’t follow.” He grabbed a steak and gestured with his head for me to do the same.

I took a bite of the meat and couldn’t help but grimace. If this is what Helen considered ‘appetising’, then her tastes had certainly changed, and not for the better. Following Ryan out, I deliberately ignored Helen, though I could see her sour expression from the corner of my eye.

We wandered around, not getting too far from the cave, but revelling in the clean air and cool breezes. Ryan led off in a direction that didn’t take us anywhere near the place where the other Helen had staked me out, which pleased me no end. The cave was freaking me out enough; the last thing I needed was to stand again where I’d almost died the last time I was here.

“How long?” Ryan asked me as we wandered along the hilltop. I glanced at him, and saw that even though his voice and body were relaxed, his eyes were moving constantly. 

I shrugged, knowing without even asking what he was talking about. “Anywhere from a million to ten million years.” I stopped and took a deep breath of the crisp air. “I’m surprised, actually, that it still looks so much the same after this length of time.”

“Hm, yeah,” he replied absently.

I shivered. “It’s not just me, then. You feel it, too.”

“Helen,” he stated with surety. “She’s following us.”

Looking around, I saw nothing. “Not closely, though. We would’ve seen her.”

“Yeah. Hopefully she’ll stay far enough away to not be a bother.”

“Huh. She’s a bother just being alive, you know that. That future place, that horrible laboratory where you found me, it still gives me the shakes just thinking about it.”

“Playing around with combining timelines ought to be enough to give anyone with a spit of sense the shakes,” Ryan replied. “The Mendips anomaly should really have a permanent guard posted in case it opens again, but there’s no way the Home Office will countenance that kind of budget.”

“Too bad. That lab was dreadful.” I didn’t want to talk about it any more. “But it doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that we’re here, we’re alive, and this is a remarkable place.” Spreading my arms, I turned my face up to the sun. “It feels fantastic. No smog, no traffic noises, no hassles, no huge dinosaurs wanting to eat us. Just clean air and warm sun.”

He chuckled. “Want to strip down and sunbathe, do you, nature boy?”

I gave him my best line in seductive looks, which seemed to be fairly effective considering the rapidly burgeoning state of his combats. He shook himself, taking a few deep breaths, each of which had a rather interesting effect on my own libido as I watched his chest rise and fall. 

“Sorry, Stephen, but I’d be happier about fun and games if I knew that Helen was tucked up in the cave all nice and snug. I’m not exhibitionist enough to want to shag you in front of her.”

My own trousers abruptly deflated. “Crap. You have a point. Oh, well, we can at least give her some exercise, and I don’t mean that in a fun way.”

Ryan’s incipient chuckle faded as he moved out. “Helen and fun are two words I would never put anywhere near each other in a sentence.”

We took off at a good clip for the anomaly site and made sure we could find it again in a hurry, mapping out from all angles any major landmarks that could be recognised in either daylight or dark. We finally arrived back at the cave just as the sun dropped behind the hills, both of us happily tired and ready for a quick meal and bed. I’d’ve liked a bath, too, but the stream’s water was a little too cool, and the possibility of primitive crocodilians made me have second thoughts. I reckoned I could make it one more day before I started offending myself.

After one glance at Helen, though, I began wishing heartily that the anomaly had opened today, because her triumphant expression started a new train of worry in my mind. I fretted about the possible reasons for it until we went to bed, and even then I slept fitfully again, constantly disturbed by odd dreams in which Helen played a prominent part, rather nastily at times.

The next morning, Ryan snagged a couple of the meal packs, overriding Helen’s protests. 

“Sorry,” he said firmly. “You might find that creature appetising, but I bloody well don’t. One more meal isn’t going to break your bank.” With those words, he tossed me a packet and I tore it open.

Once we finished, Ryan nodded and stood up. “We’re heading for the anomaly, just in case it opens a little early. You can come or stay, it’s up to you.”

She glared at him. “I trust you’re going to replace the supplies you’ve used.”

Ryan snorted, and we headed out without answering. I led the way back down the trail we’d climbed to reach Helen’s cave, feeling a slight lightening of my spirits as we moved away from the area. Unfortunately, the feeling didn’t get a chance to last long. 

“What happened, Stephen?” she asked, her voice right behind my shoulder almost making me jump out of my skin.

Jaw tight, I kept walking, but turned my head to stare at her. “What are you talking about?”

“How did you die?” Her eyes were so intent on mine that it creeped me out.

I was so shocked that I stopped dead. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, why she would ask such a question. “Um, I didn’t die. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m standing here in front of you.” Yeah, standing there doing my best not to scream like a girl and run as fast as I could away from her. Jesus, I’d rather face down one of her Cleaner clones than Helen on a mission.

She shook her head, still fixated. “No, what happened that day in the bunker? Why did you go in, why did you save Nick when he’d been so harsh to you? What happened when that ‘other’ me saved you?”

Okay, definitely working towards cracked teeth. And maybe even sprained jaw muscles. I wrenched my jaw open to blast her into next week, but I didn’t get a chance to say anything.

Ryan stepped between us. “Helen, if you open your mouth one more time I swear I’ll knock you out right here and leave you for the scavengers. Stephen, lead on. Helen, you stay back at least ten feet.”

I spun around and took off; if my pace wasn’t quite double-time, it was fairly close. We made it back to the anomaly hillside in record time, and Helen said not a word the entire way. Once we arrived, we stood there and stared at the place where the anomaly should open. I don’t know about the others, but I do know I was doing my level best to will it into existence. It didn’t work. After a while, I sighed and looked around. There was a sort of natural bench dug into the side of the hill, and I wandered over and sat on it. Then, for the first time since she’d gone silent, I looked at Helen. 

She was standing hipshot, hands fisted into her belt and eyes fixed on Ryan, who was staring back at her. Predator that she was, she must have felt my eyes on her. With a slow smile, she turned to me and opened her mouth. She didn’t get a chance to say a word, because for once, she ended up at a disadvantage. Her eyes widened as Ryan very ostentatiously cocked his gun and pointed it right at the side of her head.

“Give me an excuse,” he said grimly. “Please.”

Helen went completely motionless for a moment before her head turned and she looked up the hill. I felt it at the same time she did. The slight pull on my watch, the slight tickle as if a piece of the most delicate silk was being dragged lightly across my skin. The anomaly was open.

“Thank fuck,” I whispered and Ryan grinned as the anomaly wavered and Lieutenant Jon Lyle slid through, feet first and trailing a rope behind him.

“Hello, children,” he chirped happily. “Ready to go home to papa?”

“You have no idea,” I muttered. If Ryan hadn’t been standing there, and I hadn’t been worried about what Lester would do if he ever found out, I would’ve kissed the lieutenant. Twice. Once for saving me from the anomaly and once for saving me from Helen. Helen. Fuck, where was she? I looked around, but she was gone. “Ryan?”

He turned back from greeting our rescuer, and his eyes widened. “Where the fuck? Two seconds? And she disappears from a wide-open hillside?”

I shivered. Sometimes I wondered if she was still human. “Can we go now?” I asked plaintively. Maybe too plaintively, if Ryan’s worried look was any indication. I managed to dredge up what felt like a pretty wretched smile, but it seemed to be enough to make him relax a little.

Lyle pulled himself up through the anomaly, and within seconds two climbing harnesses dropped down. We hooked up in record time and clambered home.

Arriving back at the Home Office was a bit trippy. We’d barely made it through the door when I was almost bowled over by an armful of Abby, with Connor patting both of us on the back and Cutter standing at the end of the corridor laughing gleefully at the picture we made. I was glad he didn’t have a camera with him, because it was still too new to me, being wanted, being missed, that I was close to tears at the welcome and had to bury my face in Abby’s neck. When I finally managed to get control enough to open my eyes without leaking, I gave her a kiss on the cheek and whispered, “Thanks, Abby.”

She grinned, sliding back to the ground. “Cutter’s been a pain for three days. Go.”

I searched out Ryan amongst the crowd, and he smiled and nodded as Ditzy led him away, so I was able to take a moment to greet Cutter. 

“Stephen,” he said, reaching out to touch my shoulder. “Will you bloody well stop scaring me like this?”

All I could do was chuckle weakly. “Wish I could, Nick. But this one really was an accident.”

He snorted. “Yeah, I saw it. Scared the crap out of me when you went through the anomaly head first.”

I laughed. “Me, too. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience.” Arm around Abby, I started down the hall after Ryan and Ditzy. I knew the medic would be chasing me down within a few minutes, so I reckoned I might as well get the check-up over with. We entered Ditzy’s domain as a group, Cutter and Abby flanking me, with Connor at Abby’s side. And Ryan, damn him, saw how much that solidarity touched me, because he gave the tiniest of nods and a slight grin before holding his arm out for Ditzy to draw some blood.

“Right,” Cutter said. “We’ll leave you to it; when you’re done, Lester’s already agitating for your reports.”

Half an hour and what felt like a pint of blood later, we met in the conference room and, speaking in tandem, told them everything we remembered.

At the end, Lester tapped his pen on the table a few times. “So, just this once, you managed to meet up with a Helen Cutter who wasn’t completely insane and trying to kill you, destroy humanity or play mad scientist in science-fictionish laboratories.”

Suddenly, it felt as if the world stopped for a moment. I lost my breath and I swayed in my seat as realisation washed over me like an avalanche. My eyes sought out Ryan, who looked back at me with a concerned expression and whispered, “What?”

“All her questions at the end about timelines,” I said, horrified. “And the way we thought we were being followed. We talked about the ‘other’ Helen’s laboratory. Oh, fuck, Ryan, I think this was the Helen who did all of that. I think we were the ones who started her on the timeline quest in the first place.”

The room erupted as everyone started talking at once. It took Lester’s sharp, “Enough!” to bring order back.

“Explain,” Lester ordered.

“I - I’m not sure I can,” I replied hesitantly, working out my thoughts as I spoke. “If she’d been my timeline’s Helen, she would have known why I saved Cutter; she wouldn’t have had to ask. If she’d been this timeline’s Helen, she would have known that this line’s Stephen and Nick had reconciled years ago. But, but, she didn’t know about timelines. At all. She was surprised when we talked about the ‘other’ Helen. And she kept asking about what had happened that day in my timeline, as if it was really important.”

Ryan cursed. “And she was looking like the cat that got the cream when we came back to the cave that evening. She did hear us. Fuck. How can that woman hide in plain fucking sight?”

“Hear you?” Lester asked.

I sighed. “We were out in the middle of the valley. We shouldn’t have been in earshot. But we must have been, somehow. I said something about ‘Helen being alive is Helen dangerous’, and about the future lab.”

Eyes closed, Ryan growled, “And I added a bit about the anomaly in the Mendips. Damn it.” He opened his eyes and looked at Lester. “We fucked up, sir.”

Lester grunted. “Since Helen Cutter seems to turn into the Invisible Woman when she wants to, I can’t really blame you for speaking in the middle of an empty valley in the Cenozoic. We simply need to take the lesson from this to never again underestimate Helen Cutter. No matter which one we happen to be facing at that moment.”

That statement I could agree with wholeheartedly. Not to mention that we seemed to have a surfeit of Helen Cutters running around playing games. I rested my forehead on my folded arms as the others filed out of the room. Once they were gone, I lifted my head and sighed.

“You okay?” Ryan’s voice came from close to my right ear.

I turned and gave him a rather sickly grin. “Nope. Too many Helens.”

Ryan laughed. “Maybe not. We may have set this Helen onto a timeline hunt, but that at least means we don’t have another one: yours, mine, this one and the nutcase.”

Sighing, I agreed. “True. We have three instead of four. Whoopee.”

“Definitely whoopee,” he said, and I stared at him, befuddled.

“We only have one timeline-switching hopper, not multiples,” he said.

“Ah, I get your point. That is a good thing.” Then I shivered. “I wonder what would have happened if you’d shot her, since she hadn’t saved me yet in her life.”

Ryan shook his head in slight confusion. “I don’t even want to think about that. The whole idea gives me the creeps. What’s that phrase Connor keeps using? ‘Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey?’”

I stared at him, impressed. “Don’t say that in front of Connor, he’ll never let you go.”

My lover chuckled tiredly. “How about a huge pub meal, a nice long shower, and a good night’s sleep?”

Leaning forward, I whispered into his ear, “As long as we have some very hot sex in between the shower and sleep.”

He gulped and nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

I thought so, too.

End


End file.
